Shopping carts have long and extensively been utilized in supermarkets and the like. One of the carts which have been utilized for many years employs an upwardly opening basket supported on a wheeled base. The basket typically employs front, side and bottom walls which are rigidly formed from wire, with the side walls having a tapered relationship to permit baskets of like carts to nest one within another. To permit such nesting, the rear of the basket is closed by a rear gate which is hingedly supported adjacent its upper edge, with the lower edge of the gate when in a closed position being abutted against a rear cross wire associated with the basket bottom wall. This gate, which also normally supports thereon a collapsible baby seat assembly, swings inwardly and upwardly into the basket to permit the front end of a second cart basket to nest inside the basket of a first cart. The cart also has a handle which is spaced slightly rearwardly of the basket and extends fixedly and transversely across the basket in the vicinity of the upper rear corners of the side walls, the handle hence being in the vicinity of but spaced slightly rearwardly from the hinged upper edge of the rear gate. Typical carts of this general construction are illustrated by U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,890,057, 2,891,801, and 4,544,171.
Recently, in an attempt to promote sales of merchandise within the supermarket, and to provide added information to customers, it has been proposed and attempted to mount a small video unit on the cart in the vicinity of the handle. This video unit is disposed with its display screen oriented directly toward the customer, when the latter is standing behind the cart so as to grip the handle, whereby the customer can readily view the video screen while pushing the cart. The video unit is activated by small transmitters which are located at various locations throughout the supermarket so as to transmit to the video unit selected information, such as advertisements or information relative to special promotions.
Initial attempts to mount such a video unit on the conventional shopping cart have involved use of a bracket structure which is fixed to the cart in the vicinity of the rear thereof. More specifically, this bracket structure is rigidly fixed to the cart, adjacent the rear handle, and projects upwardly to define a support frame on which the video unit is mounted. This bracket structure, however, necessarily projects upwardly above the cart a substantial extent so as to be at an elevation whereby it does not interfere with conventional nesting of like carts. However, this results in the video unit being disposed at an undesirably high elevation whereby it is not as convenient or comfortable with respect to its visibility to the customer, and it also impairs or restricts the vision of the customer when moving the cart through the supermarket.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved bracket for mounting a video unit thereon, which bracket can be movably, and more specifically pivotally, mounted relative to the cart, in the vicinity of the handle thereof, so that the video unit in use can be at a lower and more convenient elevation while at the same time the bracket and the video unit thereon can readily swing upwardly into a nonuse position when like carts are nested for storage purposes.
More specifically, according to the present invention, the video-unit bracket is of a generally rigid one-piece structure having a generally upright open frame which mounts thereon the video unit. The frame projects upwardly above the handle in the vicinity between the handle and the rear gate, and has sidewardly projecting stops which bear against the rearwardly-extending handle side supports. The bracket has rearwardly projecting lever arms which are hingedly supported adjacent opposite ends of the handle, and the bracket also has a bottom cross member disposed adjacent the lower edge of the video mount, which cross member is disposed for contact with a rear gate of a second cart when like carts are nested. This permits the bracket and the video unit thereon to pivot upwardly about the handle into a storage position when like carts are nested and the rear gate of a rear cart swings upwardly into contact with and swingably displaces the bracket of a front cart.
Other objects and purposes of the invention will be apparent to persons familiar with structures of this general type upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.